Tag Archives: Adventure

Two and a half months. It has been two and a half months since I was last here. Two and a half months since I took a hot shower. Two and a half months since I ate a proper green salad. Two and a half months since I smelled air sweetened by fresh produce and the ripeness of earth. Two and a half months since I last slept on a mattress on which my body does not contour itself around pointed metal springs.

Two and a half months. It has been two and a half months since I was last here. Two and a half months of daily hugs and warm smiles. Two and a half months of John Steinbeck novels. Two and a half months of learning from scratch and from mistakes. Two and a half months of sweat (with “hot season” still to come) and a few tears. Two and a half months of fashioning a new family from a group of strangers. Two and a half months of wrestling with decades old demons and, while bruised and battered, standing firm. Two and a half months of living out of who I am – scars, beauty, questions and all. Two and a half months of doubting and rejecting certain fiction-based beliefs long held and culturally accepted. Two and a half months of grace upon grace. Two and a half months of releasing, relinquishing and removing false bindings, so hope-filled contentment and patience may take root.

Two and a half months; and a lifetime to go…

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Skype (14.09.2013)

In lapses
and
delays
words spoken over one another
share time
oceans and continents separate.

Yes, it has been some time since I last posted — a reoccurring theme for the last handful+ of posts. In a little more than a month, however, I will be embarking on a new adventure. And with more than a few people asking how they can stay up to date on my comings and goings during said adventure, I have determined to resurrect this blog into something useable; as opposed to the blood/emotion-letting turned photo journal turned slapdash-who-knows-what, all of which had a few playlists (via 8tracks) sprinkled in for good measure.

The adventure.

After years of internal questioning, wandering, deconstructing, and healing, I will be moving . . . scratch that . . . I AM MOVING to Juba, the capital of the Republic of South Sudan (“RoSS”). I will be working for an international humanitarian aid organization that provides multi-sectoral emergency relief and recovery assistance, i.e., health and nutrition, shelter and infrastructure, and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene).

Yes, South Sudan is a separate nation state from Sudan. South Sudan is the youngest nation in the world, not quite two years old; following a prolonged civil war, RoSS attained independence on 9 July 2011. Study an updated atlas — a map is available HERE. Start a Google news alert about RoSS. Read some interesting books about Sudan and RoSS. The world is big and we often forget about the places and people we neither see nor regularly read about in our national press.

The blog.

I will endeavor to write and post on a monthly basis about what I am learning and witnessing whilst living in RoSS. Given my love of the photographic medium I hope to integrate photographs into my posts once I am established and better understand the cultural and historical mis/use(s) of photography in RoSS.

With one month and a few days left in my beloved home state of California I am attempting to love well the people around me, eat heaps of Mexican food, enjoy delicious West Coast fermented beverages poolside or at my preferred establishments, seek beauty in the nearby mountains and along the coastlines, and tick off a host of items on my to-do list.

May honesty, beauty, gratitude, grace, and bravery rule today and all those that follow.